This Summer’s Singularly Sensation-al Musical

A director’s perspective on bringing A Chorus Line to Barrington Stage

By Anastasia Stanmeyer

It’s no surprise that Alan Paul, artistic director of Barrington Stage Company, took an entire week off after he auditioned some 500 performers for this summer’s production of A Chorus Line. It was the longest auditioning process he’d ever done. The casting call asked for “triple threat” performers—artists who excel in acting, singing, and dancing. Ultimately, 26 were chosen. 

Photo By Eric Korenman

“We were exhausted by the end of it, but it was amazing,” says Paul, who is directing the musical. “I brought a board member with me to the callbacks for the first round of auditions, and she was bowled over by the amount of talent on display. Even by the final day of callbacks, there were 75 people still standing, and they could have all been in the show! That’s the cruelty of this business. And that's the whole point of A Chorus Line. Seventeen dancers are vying for eight roles: with only four men and four women in the ‘final show.’ And when you see the finale, they're indistinguishable from each other, and you’ve just spent two hours seeing how every single one of them is special. That’s showbiz!”

Set on a bare stage, the 1975 groundbreaking musical explores the inner lives, ambitions, and personal struggles of these "unsung heroes" as they share the stories that shaped their careers. Each role, each performer, is unique, says Paul. Take the character Maggie Wilson who hits the key high note in “At the Ballet” or Mike Costa, the tap dancer who stops the show early on with the showstopping, “I Can Do That.” 

The show became legend, because for the first time in Broadway history it shined a spotlight on the ensemble—NOT the stars. And the cast for Barrington Stage’s production includes names that most people won’t recognize. Yet. Many of those selected have done the show three or four times, adds Paul. “What I was unprepared for—and I was sort of foolish to be unprepared for—is that so many dancers articulated in their audition what this show means to them, and it brought them to tears talking about it.”

Rehearsals begin June 16, and the show runs from July 15 to August 8. 

Producing and directing a well-known musical has its challenges. First and foremost is how to make it relevant for today’s audience and bring some innovation to the piece, without disappointing its dedicated fans who are excited to see the show they already love. What’s Paul’s approach?  

“You let 26 dancers find what is the most personal expression of this piece for them. You help them make their characters’ struggles and journeys true to their own experience. That's the job for me and the choreographer. The actors have got to play their characters but also bring what is personal about their relationship to the characters and their relationship to dancing. If they can do that, it will be unstoppable. And they can do that…and they will do that…because that's the way we'll direct them.”

Why did Paul choose A Chorus Line as the summer season’s blockbuster musical? Was it a long, thought-out process that led to the decision? Or did he know right away that THIS was the one?

“To be honest, I didn't know what to do,” Paul tells me. “I just thought A Chorus Line is something I've never done. And who doesn't want to see A Chorus Line? It never goes out of fashion, and there’s no other musical in the canon that is so meaningful to all of us in the theater. It captures a universality to our theater lives—the dedication, the passion, the risk. It asks, What does it mean to put yourself on the line?”

Paul doesn’t plan to stray too far from the original production. “My goal is to just do the damn thing really well,” he says. “Get extraordinary performers who can make it true and make it exciting. And make it dance! If we capture the heart of it, we’ve done our job.”

Although he has never directed A Chorus Line, Paul says it’s in his DNA. “So many of us grew up on the cast recording. It’s synonymous with Broadway. Who doesn’t know ‘At the Ballet’ or ‘Music and the Mirror’?” 

(I adore the tender ballad “What I Did for Love,” which is about the love of the craft and doing it without regret. And everyone knows the signature song, ”One”!)

Is Paul feeling uncertain if he can direct a version of this beloved musical, put his own unique spin on it, and have it live up to its legend? 

On the contrary; he feels unpressured. “People don't want you to mess with it too much,” says Paul. “They're less interested in seeing your version of A Chorus Line than just seeing it done with extraordinary feeling, great dancing, and powerful singing. So, that’s what we’re going to do!”

He’s thrilled to have choreographer Parker Esse working on this production. The two have teamed up before, with The Pajama Game (2017) at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., for which Esse received a Helen Hayes award for Outstanding Choreography. Broadway icon Donna McKechnie, an original cast member of A Chorus Line (and the original director/choreographer Michael Bennett’s inspiration for the show), starred as Mabel in The Pajama Game, playing the factory secretary and performing the number "I'll Never Be Jealous Again.”

“She would go through the number with her dance partner every night before the show,” Paul remembers. “It was such a lesson in dedication and precision.”

Early in his career, Esse worked closely as an associate for Baayork Lee, the original Connie in A Chorus Line. He has been the keeper of A Chorus Line, re-staging productions with the original choreography for decades all over the world. “He’s connected to the tradition of it,” says Paul. “Our production will use a mix of Michael Bennett's iconic choreography in some parts, with reimagined and new choreography in other parts. I want to honor what everyone loves about A Chorus Line and respectfully reinvent it in the places I can.

“I am a little bit of a classicist. I’ve worked on so many classic plays and musicals. I always want someone who is aware of what was done before and then has the freedom to put their spin on it. My fear in choosing a choreographer was that if you get someone who doesn't know the original, how do you morph beyond it? But Parker is both very aware of what was done before and feels free to make it his own. He and I are going to be meeting a lot in the next few months, and I'm eager to see what speaks to him personally in the dances. I loved my time with him at auditions. He's quite a special choreographer.”

How will Paul put his mark on A Chorus Line? 

“Part of the reason we love the show is that it is what it is. But we’re having some fun with subtle changes. I've cast some really interesting people who are a little different from what is standardly done. And costumes! We're in the middle of designing the costumes, and the original is very much a product of 1975. I mean, the show is always going to be in the ’70s. It's got that feel in the orchestrations. But I want our production to feel a little bit more out of time.”

Paul actually brought the costume designer to callbacks, because he wanted her to see what the dancers were wearing to audition (with looks surprisingly different than what dancers were wearing in the ’70s). “People show their bodies differently today,” he says, “so there’s a way to make it feel a little more modern that may be imperceptible to anyone but me.

“As far as the show itself, there are definitely places that are more malleable than others. I think that ‘Music and the Mirror’ is going to be a very personal collaboration between Parker and the woman playing ‘Cassie.’ I think we’re going to let it organically evolve. And then there are numbers like ‘One’ and ‘I Hope I Get It.’ It would be treachery to go too far from the original!”

A Chorus Line runs from July 15 to August 8 at Barrington Stage Company’s on Boyd-Quinson Stage in Pittsfield. The opening celebration is July 19. barringtonstageco.org